10 Personal Financial Management Apps You Need To Build Wealth

Building wealth is a long-term that takes not only time, but also the use of a variety of tools to make it happen. It requires the monitoring of various aspects of your spending and saving life. When there is a fault in one aspect or the other, it can impede you reaching your goal in a timely manner. Today, we will take a look at 10 personal financial management applications that will ensure that you are on the right track to building wealth and a large nest egg for the future.

1. Acorns

Acorns is an application that is set to be released in July 2014 on the App Store. The app allows you to invest the small spare change, or any amount you choose, into a diversified money market account. Through this, you can gather profit from small and large companies, government bonds, and more.

Love: Makes investment more approachable for the average individual who may be scared off from the idea of a sophisticated investment portfolio.

Hate: You must use your bank account for investments. Understandable to prevent credit card debt, but some individuals may prefer other options.

2. Mint

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Mint allows you to get a holistic view of your finances, including advice on problem areas. When your active accounts are connected, you are able to get a full view of your cash flow, taking into consideration credit card charges and income as well.

Love: You are able to stay on top of your finances and even get emails when you are falling off the wagon of financial health.

Hate: Sometimes, budgets aren’t accurate, which requires having to stay on top of the application more than your finances sometimes to ensure things are properly allocated.

3. Level Money

The main appeal of LevelMoney are the informative info graphics that allow you to stay on top of your finances, savings as well as spending habits. Plus, as shown above, you can get an easily digestible view of your day, week, and month.

Love: Simple, easily digestible, and informative.

Hate: Some may want a little more out of the application, in terms of financial management.

4. Scanner Pro

Having a digital form of your receipts and financial forms can allow you to ensure that you can easily access important documents dealing with your money. Scanner Pro brings scanning capabilities to your iPhone, allowing you to export as a PDF all within your iPhone itself.

Love: Great way to digitize papers on the go.

Hate: For $2.99, the capabilities that come with the app may not be worth it to some, who may simply substitute by taking a photo instead.

5. Spendee

Spendee is a very minimalist financial advice application that analyzes your spending habits to provide you tips on how to spend your money wisely. Your savings activity is also monitored to ensure that you are working toward a plan of building wealth for the future.

Love: The ability to export your spending and income into an Excel document. I also love the ability to take photos of bills and receipts all in an app worth gorgeous graphs.

Hate: Financial information focuses more on the month to month, rather than continuously offering your financial state.

6. BillGuard

BillGuard allows you to stay on top of your finances to build wealth through keeping track of the bills and other aspects of spending to ensure that you are on a path of financial health. The “guard” aspect of BillGuard comes with the fact that your cards are protected from fraud.

Love: Security of cards through notifications of suspicious charges and activity.

8. Credit Karma Mobile

The most important gate to building smart wealth is through having full knowledge of your credit score and history. Credit Karma is a big name in credit scores and the application allows you to stay on top of it while also keeping track of your financial accounts connected to the app.

Love: You truly get your full credit report for free, without any hidden fees.

9. Check

Stay on top of your due dates and credit limits. This is the application that ensures that you are on top of bills and ensures that you aren’t going to have a high utilization percentage on your credit cards.

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Love: Beautiful application that alerts you when due dates are nearing.

Hate: Account management issues; including separate accounts under the same company.

10. Bloomberg

Staying on top of market news and updates of the stock market will help you to come to a better conclusion on the right time to invest in a specific company. Bloomberg for iOS and Android ensures that you become well versed in all things in financial current affairs.

Love: Easy to use and minimalist, while continuing to give a determined and serious user interface. This is the app to get the news you need on finance without fluff.

Hate: Geared toward those a little bit more versed in the financial markets, not exactly for fresh beginners yet.

Your salary requirements can make or break your odds at getting hired. But only if you’re not prepared.

Ask for a salary too high with no room for negotiation and your potential employer will not be able to afford you. Aim too low and employers will perceive as you offering low value. The trick is to aim as high as possible while keeping both parties feel happy.

Of course, you can’t command a high price without bringing value.

The good news is that learning how to be a high-value employee is possible. You have to work on the right tasks to grow in the right areas. Here are a few tactics to negotiate your salary requirements with confidence.

1. Hack time to accomplish more than most

Do you want to get paid well for your hard work? Of course you do. I hate to break it to you, but so do most people.

With so much competition, this won’t be an easy task to achieve. That’s why you need to become a pro at time management.

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Do you know how much free time you have? Not the free time during your lunch break or after you’ve finished working at your day job. Rather, the free time when you’re looking at your phone or watching your favorite TV show.

Data from 2017 shows that Americans spend roughly 3 hours watching TV. This is time poorly spent if you’re not happy with your current lifestyle. Instead, focus on working on your goals whenever you have free time.

For example, if your commute to/from work is 1 hour, listen to an educational Podcast. If your lunch break is 30 minutes, read for 10 to 15 minutes. And if you have a busy life with only 30–60 minutes to spare after work, use this time to work on your personal goals.

Create a morning routine that will set you up for success every day. Start waking up 1 to 2 hours earlier to have more time to work on your most important tasks. Use tools like ATracker to break down which activities you’re spending the most time in.

It won’t be easy to analyze your entire day, so set boundaries. For example, if you have 4 hours of free time each day, spend at least 2 of these hours working on important tasks.

2. Set your own boundaries

Having a successful career isn’t always about the money. According to Gallup, about 70% of employees aren’t satisfied with their current jobs.[1]

Earning more money isn’t a bad thing, but choosing a higher salary over the traits that are the most important to you is. For example, if you enjoy spending time with your family, reject job offers requiring a lot of travel.

Work and life balance – The last thing you’d want is a job that forces you to work 60+ hours each week. Unless this is the type of environment you’d want. Understand how your potential employer emphasizes work/life balance.

Self-development opportunities – Having the option to grow within your company is important. Once you learn how to do your tasks well, you’ll start becoming less engaged. Choose a company that encourages employee growth.

Company culture – The stereotypical cubicle job where one feels miserable doesn’t have to be your fate. Not all companies are equal in culture. Take, for example, Google, who invests heavily in keeping their employees happy.[2]

These are some of the most important traits to look for in a company, but there are others. Make it your mission to rank which traits are important to you. This way you’ll stop applying to the wrong companies and stay focused on what matters to you more.

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3. Continuously invest in yourself

Investing in yourself is the best investment you can make. Cliche I know, but true nonetheless.

You’ll grow as a person and gain confidence with the value you’ll be able to bring to others. Investing in yourself doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, you can read books to expand your knowledge in different fields.

Don’t get stuck into the habit of reading without a purpose. Instead, choose books that will help you expand in a field you’re looking to grow. At the same time, don’t limit yourself to reading books in one subject–create a healthy balance.

Podcasts are also a great medium to learn new subjects from experts in different fields. The best part is they’re free and you can consume them on your commute to/from work.

Paid education makes sense if you have little to no debt. If you decide to go back to school, be sure to apply for scholarships and grants to have the least amount of debt. Regardless of which route you take to make it a habit to grow every day.

It won’t be easy, but this will work to your advantage. Most people won’t spend most of their free time investing in themselves. This will allow you to grow faster than most, and stand out from your competition.

4. Document the value you bring

Resumes are a common way companies filter employees through the hiring process. Here’s the big secret: It’s not the only way you can showcase your skills.

To request for a higher salary than most, you have to do what most are unwilling to do. Since you’re already investing in yourself, make it a habit to showcase your skills online.

A great way to do this is to create your own website. Pick your first and last name as your domain name. If this domain is already taken, get creative and choose one that makes sense.

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Here are some ideas:

joesmith.com

joeasmith.com

joesmithprojects.com

Nowadays, building a website is easy. Once you have your website setup, begin producing content. For example, if you a developer you can post the applications you’re building.

During your interviews, you’ll have an online reference to showcase your accomplishments. You can use your accomplishments to justify your salary requirements. Since most people don’t do this, you’ll have a higher chance of employers accepting your offer

5. Hide your salary requirements

Avoid giving you salary requirements early in the interview process.

But if you get asked early, deflect this question in a non-defensive manner. Explain to the employer that you’d like to understand your role better first. They’ll most likely agree with you; but if they don’t, give them a range.

The truth is great employers are more concerned about your skills and the value you bring to the company. They understand that a great employee is an investment, able to earn them more than their salary.

Remember that a job interview isn’t only for the employer, it’s also for you. If the employer is more interested in your salary requirements, this may not be a good sign. Use this question to gauge if the company you’re interviewing is worth working for.

6. Do just enough research

Research average salary compensation in your industry, then wing it.

Use tools like Glassdoor to research the average salary compensation for your industry. Then leverage LinkedIn’s company data that’s provided with its Pro membership. You can view a company’s employee growth and the total number of job openings.

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Use this information to make informed decisions when deciding on your salary requirements. But don’t limit yourself to the average salary range. Companies will usually pay you more for the value you have.